Shadowcraft Academy: Jinxed: A Dark Academy Paranormal Romance, page 1
SHADOWCRAFT ACADEMY: JINXED
SHADOWCRAFT ACADEMY
BOOK TWO
YVE VALE
ENTRAVERSE PUBLISHING
Published by Entraverse Publishing
Sedona, AZ 86339, USA
YveVale.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, actual events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2022 Yve Vale.
Cover Art & Interior Art Design © 2022 Yve Vale.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
1. Aftermath
2. Mate
3. Posturing
4. Myra
5. Arden's Mark
6. Landis Dreams
7. Back to School
8. Wolf Mating Dance
9. Confessions
10. Dazed and Confused
11. A New Friend
12. Wolf's Clothing
13. Cleaning Up
14. Dragon Slayer
15. Repercussions
16. Conflicted
17. The Past Haunts
18. Uprooted
19. Grounded
20. Caught
21. Off Campus
22. The Incident
23. The Line Drawn
24. Home Again
25. Consequences
26. Punishments
27. Breakfast Confessionals
28. Jealous Brew
29. Under Shadow
30. Breaking Curses
31. Montage
32. Solstice Dance
33. Protection
34. A New Plan
35. Safe House
36. Penance
Books by Yve Vale
Acknowledgements
About the Author
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Shadowcraft Academy Series is a dark paranormal academy why choose romance.
Shadowcraft Academy contains dark themes that some readers may be sensitive to. Visit yvevale.com for more information.
1
AFTERMATH
SHAYLA
It must be around midday when I wake up on a couch in the common room, nestled in Arden’s giant, comforting arms. My ear is pressed over his heart, and the rhythmic thumping lulls me into believing that all the craziness that happened the night before was my imagination.
That is… until my eyes crack open and I see what surrounds me. Our dorm looks like a hurricane hit it. But no, it was all me. My wild magic created this damage.
What more am I capable of? What would have happened if the guys hadn’t been able to help me calm my magic down?
Landis is crashed out in the spot on the couch next to us. My eyes dart across the room to see if anyone else is in our dorm’s shared space. I find my sexy professor, Mr. Hollis, stretched out on the couch opposite us. Rourke’s and Branden’s doors are open. Odd. Their doors are never open.
“You up, Sparkles?” Arden slides his large hand up my spine under my thin sleep shirt. His druidic healing power tingles over my skin.
I don’t want to move from his warm embrace, since I fear I won’t find myself in his arms again. He isn’t my fated mate—Rourke, the alphahole dragon shifter is. And now, Rourke, who had been trying to reject our bond, will probably object to my relationship with Arden because I have a lot of powerful magic. The dragon might want to keep me, after all.
I blink a few times, remembering all that happened last night. I recall how Rourke actually helped me settle down when my power finally emerged and almost destroyed the room. I could have hurt everyone inside.
Rourke was… nice to me. His words were kind and gentle as he guided me to calm my fire.
No. I chide myself. He was just being practical. He didn’t want me blowing up the building, just in case his unbonded mate might be able to do something like that. And to be honest, I’m not sure what I can do. All the magic swirling in me last night was definitely confusing. I don’t have enough training or experience to know what I’m capable of.
It doesn’t sound like any of the five males who witnessed it knew what I am, either. I shiver at that thought. I could be dangerous. Strike that. I’m most definitely dangerous.
Rourke, his family, and Branden might try to keep me under their control and use me. Would they threaten Arden, Landis, or Quade to make me submit to their will?
“Yeah, I’m up,” I finally answer and gaze at my professor, Mr. Hollis, asleep on the couch. Quade is probably here to ensure that I don’t hurt anyone with my new crazy gifts.
Gifts… Ha!
Curse is more like it. Magic has pretty much only caused me pain, with a few exceptions such as Arden’s healing.
My spirits deflate when I remember how I accidentally summoned fire… just like my abusive mother. Why couldn’t I have water as my affinity? But wait, didn’t I also sense the waters within me? My magic makes no sense.
And I feel weirdly different inside—altered. But maybe it is just what having magic feels like.
“Shayla?” Landis calls. “How are you feeling?”
The incubus is rubbing his smoky gray eyes like a kid waking up. His auburn hair is sticking up in a messy, sexy way. Goddess, I would love to wake up next to him every morning… along with my druid.
I itch to finally kiss Landis’ lips and taste him. But Rourke would throw a fit, just like when he discovered me with Arden.
Damn, I need to sever my fragile mating bond with the dragon. He will never let me have someone else. Arden would share my love with Landis, maybe others. He said as much last night.
However, Rourke is a dragon, and they don’t share.
Neither of us can stand the other now. It’s ironic, since Rourke’s rejection burns in my chest like I’m actually dying from heartbreak. In reality, I barely knew him when fate was a bitch and linked us together.
I swallow my frustrations to focus on the now and answer Landis, “Um, I’m alright. You?”
He shrugs and yawns.
I peer over Arden’s broad shoulder and see the door to my room smashed to pieces on the ground.
Did Rourke do that… to protect me? Or to protect his possession?
Then I remember the psychic attack last night. It was scarier than the torture I experienced growing up. At least my mother couldn’t literally get into my head.
Not all evil is equal.
And this incubus-mage is still out there, identity unknown. He could attack me again. He probably will, since I fought him off, and he has had a taste of my magic. I doubt this powerful mage could handle his failure against an untrained student like me.
“Are you hungry?” Arden asks, breaking my trajectory that would have taken me down the path of worrying about their safety.
I chuckle. The druid loves feeding me. I think that it must be how he shows people that he cares about them. Apparently, food is his primary love language. I stare into my druid’s forest green eyes. I wish I could get lost in his eyes forever and forget all the horrible things I must face.
“I could eat,” I whisper and move off his lap.
Arden absently sets me down next to him, then heads to the kitchen without a backward glance, as he usually does. His behavior feels distant—although subtle, I can sense it. But as a child of an abuser, I watch for any warning sign no matter how small.
Maybe my fire show last night freaked him out more than I thought. Maybe he wants to forget our intimate moments last night—return to a friendship.
My power display freaked me out. I thought I had little to no magic. Last night, Arden didn’t realize what he was getting into when he kissed me. It’s breaking my heart to think of my druid distancing himself. But with Rourke in the stupid messy mix, too? I get why Arden would pull away. Or am I just being overly sensitive because of the rejected mate bond with Rourke?
Standing up, I wobble a bit. Somehow, Quade is suddenly awake. He rushes around the coffee table between us, clasps my arms, and steadies me. His amber eyes search mine frantically. Perhaps he thinks that I’m ready to blow up again.
“You okay?” Quade asks. His voice is softer than I’ve ever heard it. It’s disarming in an entirely new way, since he usually is so tough with me during our magic tutoring sessions.
In all my work with him trying to bring forth my powers, and after the assaults I endured, I have never seen him look quite as vulnerable as he does now.
My heart squeezes in my chest. This draw to him makes no sense. Sure, he’s stupidly handsome, powerful, and intelligent. But seriously, almost every supernatural dude is a freaking smokeshow.
No. There’s something deeper. But it can’t be what I feel, because I’ve already found my fated mate. My professor can’t also be mine. However, it feels quite similar to the pull within my soul when I met Rourke. That scares me because I don’t think I can handle it if two mates reject me.
And Quade would have to reject me, since I’m his student.
Besides, I don’t think t
“Shayla?” Quade prompts, pulling me out of the trance. I gaze into his golden eyes. “Are you alright?”
“Um…” I recall the other part of last night—the part I don’t want to remember… Myra on her deathbed.
My knees buckle.
Quade pulls me against his chest. “I’ve got you, mate.”
Wait… What?
2
MATE
SHAYLA
I might have passed out briefly after Quade said, mate.
Unable to look at Quade for fear of losing my shit, my eyes catch on Landis. His face is a cross between shock and a smug smirk. I don’t know how he’s able to pull it off.
But his expression confirms that I didn’t mishear the word.
Further confirmation occurs in the form of Rourke and Branden appearing in their respective doorways, stalking toward Quade, with me wrapped up in the professor’s arms.
Rourke puffs a bit of dragon smoke out of his nostrils. “You did not just say what I thought I heard.” His dragon eyes flame and his skin ripples, as if he were about to shift.
“Rourke?” Branden calls to him.
“No.” Rourke flicks his hand at his best friend, and the vampire glowers at him. “I’ve let this shit go on far too long.”
“What shit?” Quade asks, gripping me tighter to his chest with my feet barely touching the floor. His eyes glow bright gold with his magic. “Do you mean the part where I try to save Shayla by helping her control her powers, so she doesn’t get thrown in the asylum and left to die? Or is it the shit where you have an amazing fated mate, but you reject her immediately—just because she won’t fit prettily in your infamous Lewellyn family tree?”
“This isn’t about you,” Rourke snaps.
Oh. That’s weird. Is Quade a fated mate to a Lewellyn? Was he rejected like I was?
“But it is about Shayla,” Quade goes on. “You rejected her. Now your family plays this painful game, pretending to the supe community that you want her to figure out her new magic. Through her mate bond, she is tortured to want you, knowing you just want her to disappear.”
“I wanted the mate bond to disappear. Not her,” Rourke argues.
Wanted? Did he just use the past tense? Does he want me? My heart twists. My incomplete bond craves completion.
“If you don’t want her, then you should let her move on with the males who will cherish her,” Quade says.
I cover my face in embarrassment. This is all wrong. Arden was pulling away just now, likely regretting the mess he hooked up with last night. Landis likes fooling around with me when feeding in his shadowscape, but he doesn’t want my actual touch.
And Quade? He can barely stand to be around me during our training sessions.
No one really wants me. The idea rips me up despite knowing that I shouldn’t care.
I’m tired of all this mating drama. I just want to see my friend Myra and see if there’s anything I can do to help her survive whatever happened.
“Quade,” I say softly to encourage him to calm down, and I tap his chest to get him to set me down. I feel ridiculous, cradled in his arms during this crazy confrontation.
“Rourke?” I look at both of them, with their chests heaving. “This is a pointless argument. I need to see Myra.”
“No,” both of them say in unison.
Oh, now they agree?
“Why the fuck not?” I cross my arms and hope that I can remain standing during my show of defiance and determination. But all the magic I used last night has exhausted me.
“Shayla.” Quade tucks a wild lock of hair behind my ear, and Rourke’s eyes narrow at him. “Myra is probably still being stabilized. And…,” he hesitates.
“You might blow up the hospital,” Branden adds, standing in solidarity with Rourke.
I snap my gaze to the vamp. He truly believes that I might. I look at the dragon and the wolf. Both are pompous alphaholes, but their expressions say the same thing.
I’m dangerous.
“But I have to! Myra needed me, and I wasn’t able to find her. I didn’t help her. What if… what if my powers can fix her?”
Quade shakes his head. “Do you want to risk hurting everyone at the hospital in an attempt? You don’t know what your powers are.”
“And neither do you,” I say, then realize that I’m winning his argument for him. “Please, I need to see my friend.”
“Can you keep your emotions in check?” Quade asks in full professor mode.
I bite my lip as I worry about my state of mind. If I let my anger take over again, I might unleash my power accidentally. Because of my rejected mate bond with Rourke, my soul is in turmoil. I have mostly lost my ability to keep my composure. But I answer, “I think so?”
“Because if you can’t, you could lose control of your magic. We can’t risk anyone finding out about your unusual magic or you hurting someone.” Quade narrows his eyes. “I suppose there’s no arguing with you. You’d find a way to sneak off, anyway. But you have to eat first.”
I nod in agreement.
“This is a mistake,” Rourke mutters.
“Well, you would know. You’re the expert in mistakes,” Quade grumbles.
Arden and Landis are quiet during breakfast, observing everyone and the strange dynamics going on in our dorm. Quade’s presence has shifted things considerably.
Branden seems weirdly more relaxed since my intense magical episode. Is it because he sees that I’m a potential weapon for him to wield?
Rourke is more agitated than usual, and I can’t tell if it’s about my newfound power or Quade’s presence in our dorm. Maybe a bit of both.
Quade pretends to be ignorant of the tension. But I can see by the way that he holds his shoulders a bit stiffly that he’s aware of the effect he has on our group.
Our group… Are we in this together?
“Who’s going to the hospital?” Quade asks as we finish up the breakfast that Arden made for everyone. The professor is taking command of the situation. I don’t mind, since I barely have enough energy to walk to my room and change into casual clothes.
“I’m going,” Arden says without thinking.
“Me too.” Landis jumps up and helps clear the table.
“I’d like to see what’s happened to these supes,” Rourke says, removing me as his reason for tagging along.
Can this guy pick a lane?
Branden looks me in the eye. “Are you sure you can handle it?”
“She’s my friend. I have to see her.”
“It might only be to say goodbye,” Branden adds, not unkindly, but I hear the warning… I might freak out.
I nod, tears quietly leaking down my cheeks. I hold back the sob that’s ready to rip from my chest.
“Then we should go now,” the vamp says.
My feet are unsure as I stand up and walk the short distance to my room.
In a flash, Arden is right behind me, holding me upright. He helps me to my wardrobe drawers, and I pick out jeans and a long-sleeve shirt.
We both look at my destroyed bedroom door on the floor. Arden sweeps me up into his arms and carries me to our shared bathroom. After placing me on the counter, he turns on two sinks, full blast.
He places his hands on either side of my hips on the counter, leans in, and whispers, but it’s probably a useless measure since the supes in the other room have incredible hearing. But maybe the hiss of the sinks will make it hard for them to hear us. “Do you think this is a good idea? You can barely walk. That power display took a lot out of you.”
